Here's a little inside secret about the journalism business: When a byline on a story says "By (Whatever Publication) Staff" instead of an actual name of an actual writer, it more often than not means that the writer would be embarrassed to see his or her name associated with that particular piece of work. Here's an example.

You'd be embarrassed, too, if you worked for the Wall Street Journal and had to write a story about "The Bachelor."

(Update: My Network World colleague Keith Shaw notes that this practice is the journalistic equivalent of Alan Smithee, which until the year 2000 was the standard pseudonym used by sheepish Hollywood directors.)

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